Multidivisional and Office of the CIO
Celebrated National Cybersecurity Awareness Month
ITS and the Information Security Office celebrated National Cybersecurity Awareness Month throughout October with two virtual events, two in-person events, nine ITS News articles, social media coverage and a first-ever Cyber Bowl.
The Cyber Bowl was a month-long online quiz competition between UNC, NC State University and Duke University. The competition drew 5,300 participants from the three universities. UNC won the championship with the highest participation percentage with 6.45% of all Carolina students, faculty and staff participating.
Changed setting to reduce campus spam
On October 16, ITS implemented a final DMARC setting change for all campus-managed email domains. The change adjusts DMARC settings for unc.edu from “none” to “reject,” meaning emails that fail either SPF, DKIM or both will not be delivered. Rejected emails never reach campus inboxes or junk folders.
Rolled out Gartner Campus Access to campus
In Q4, ITS reintroduced Gartner IT research. Staff, faculty and students can leverage Gartner Campus Access for Gartner’s top-notch research on IT trends, vendors, products and technologies. Gartner Campus Access provides detailed technical insights, knowledge and best practices to enhance initiatives and results, expedite project timelines and reduce risk.
People
In the news
In Q4, ITS staffers were featured in news reports at UNC and beyond. Both ABC 11 and the Daily Tar Heel interviewed ITS staff about their work on campus AI initiatives. University Communications chronicled UNC’s response to Hurricane Helene, including efforts by ITS staff.
Represented UNC at University, state, national conferences
Q4 was a busy season for conferences.
- UNC CAUSE conference: Two ITS staff members presented at the conference and about 20 ITS staff members attended the UNC CAUSE conference in Winston-Salem in October. UNC CAUSE is a gathering of IT professionals from UNC system schools.
- EDUCAUSE annual conference: One ITS staffer facilitated several sessions and two other ITS staff members attended the EDUCAUSE national conference in San Antonio. EDUCAUSE is the nation’s largest higher ed IT organization.
- Higher Education NetComm Workshop: Co-organized by an ITS staff member, the NetComm workshop drew 250 attendees in a hybrid format. The workshop was scheduled alongside the annual EDUCAUSE conference.
- EDUCAUSE online conference: Two ITS staff members presented and facilitated sessions during the two-day online EDUCAUSE conference.
- UNC Project & Change Management Community of Practice: ITS Project Portfolio & Change Management hosted the third annual UNC Project & Change Management Community of Practice virtual conference in late November.
Customer Experience & Engagement
Released guidance to help the University comply with new federal guidelines
The Digital Accessibility Office released guidance to help everyone on campus understand their responsibilities for and comply with new federal accessibility guidelines. The new rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) clarifies that state and local governments must make digital content accessible and establishes a technical standard. The new rule also sets a compliance deadline. All University digital content must be accessible by April 24, 2026.
Began transition to Ping
ITS Voice Services is replacing the Communicator softphone software client with Clearspan’s Ping software. Voice Services turned off basic Communicator on November 21. Voice Services will begin transitioning the University’s estimated 6,000 premium Communicator users to Ping in Q1 2025 and expects to complete the migration by Q2 2025.
Shared the ITS story
In Q4, ITS Communications published 21 ITS News articles, including a look at 2024 in review. For the year, ITS Communications published 94 ITS News articles, The Well republished seven articles, and four ITS News articles landed as the second-most-clicked items in issues of WorkWell.
Educational Technologies
Shared impact of Catchbox microphones in campus classrooms
ITS Classroom Hotline first provided Catchbox microphones, wireless microphone cubes that have a soft pillowy texture, to campus in 2017. Now, Classroom Hotline provides Catchbox microphones for use in 12 classrooms, encouraging both engagement and accessibility.
Helped UNC Asheville transition to online teaching
Three ITS Educational Technologies staffers volunteered to help UNC Asheville instructors convert courses to an online format following Hurricane Helene and the move to remote learning. Volunteers across the UNC System helped convert more than 500 courses.
Completed classroom upgrades
This summer, Classroom Hotline switched systems for controlling and programming audiovisual technology in general-purpose classrooms. The team converted 37 rooms from AMX to a new vendor, Extron. This was the first time in 25 years that UNC changed providers of audiovisual control systems.
The team also swapped out 200 computers and 15 projector screens that were life-cycled, installed Listen Everywhere technology in 25 classrooms, transitioned ownership of Carolina Print Hub within EdTech and worked with Facilities Services to overhaul two classrooms.
Security & Identity Management
Revamped IT administrator training
The Information Security Office introduced revamped annual training for IT administrators across the University. The training is for more than 100 IT administrators across campus who are ultimately responsible for key systems and services. This includes systems administrators, client administrators, network administrators, web developers, web application developers, software developers and others.
People
Mel Radcliffe, who worked at the University for more than nine years and had served as interim chief information officer, retired on December 1.
Enterprise Applications
Marked ConnectCarolina milestone
October is the 10-year anniversary of the Finance and HR/Payroll component of ConnectCarolina moving to the PeopleSoft Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. The Student Administration component recently marked 15 years. The ConnectCarolina team has completed many upgrades and system enhancements since implementation.